A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.

UNO Charter Schools

Weeks after Federico “Fred” d’Escoto stepped down from the board of the
United Neighborhood Organization, his company, d’Escoto Inc., got its first
check from the influential charter-school operator toward what now totals more
than $1.8 million in state-funded payments.

But d’Escoto Inc.’s ties to UNO — part of a pattern of insider hiring
now under scrutiny by state authorities — date back years before that, internal
documents obtained by the Chicago
Sun-Times show.

The private, not-for-profit organization already had been using
d’Escoto’s Chicago
construction-management company for three years to do rehabilitation work on
its largely taxpayer-funded charter schools, the records show.

And it did so even as d’Escoto was a member of UNO’s board and while his
brother Miguel d’Escoto was both a top executive at UNO and a member of
d’Escoto Inc.’s board, state and city government documents show...

... The Chicago Sun-Times recently reported that much of a $98 million
state grant given to UNO to build schools was funneled to companies that have
deep connections to the organization's political allies and a top UNO
executive, Miguel d'Escoto. Shortly after the story broke, d'Escoto resigned.

D'Escoto Inc., a company owned by Miguel d'Escoto's brother Federico,
reaped more than $1.5 million for work as the "owner's
representative" in the construction of several schools.

Reflection Window Co., owned by another d'Escoto brother, Rodrigo,
stands to earn nearly $10 million for work on several schools.

Plumbing contracts went to a company owned by the sister of Victor
Reyes, the clout-heavy lawyer and lobbyist who helped UNO snag the state grant.

UNO hired Aguila Security, a firm run by two brothers of state Rep.
Edward Acevedo, a longtime UNO ally who voted to approve the UNO grant in
2009...

In recent days Rangel has acknowledged his organization has a serious
problem. He has suspended UNO's contract with d'Escoto Inc., while UNO reviews
its contracting practices. He has brought on former U.S. District Judge Wayne
Andersen to review how UNO picked companies to build its schools. He accepted
the resignation of Miguel d'Escoto...

Ald. Danny Solis (25th) — a co-founder and former head of the United
Neighborhood Organization — said Wednesday he thinks it was “improper, at the
very least,” for the politically influential organization to use a $98 million
state school grant to hire contractors with close ties to the leadership of
UNO’s charter-school network.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that UNO’s insider deals
included giving contracts paid for by the state grant to companies owned by two
brothers of Miguel d’Escoto, the group’s No. 2 executive until he resigned
Tuesday from his $200,000-a-year post as senior vice president of operations in
the fallout from that revelation...

Built in 2011 with $25 million from Illinois taxpayers, the curvy,
stainless-steel structure that houses the UNO Soccer Academy Elementary Charter
School leaps out from the neighboring landscape of boxy brick houses on the
Southwest Side.

The school on South Homan
Avenue isn’t just eye-catching. It has provided
opportunities for working-class, Hispanic parents who want an alternative to
crowded, poorly performing public schools for their children, says the head of
the United Neighborhood Organization, the increasingly influential group that
built and operates the school.

But the way it and other UNO schools were built also has provided a
financial boon to people close to the group’s leaders, records obtained by the
Chicago Sun-Times show...

As one observer tweeted, "U.S. media have focused too much on the Islamic nature of the Gulen movement. Real concern is its shady dealings and improprieties."

Please be aware that Gulenists have created a large number of anonymously-operated damage control websites. They started to appear a few months after publication of Greg Toppo's article in USA Today (August 2010).

"...minimal regulation and minimal oversight."

“But charters have now become a stand-in for vouchers because they accomplish the same goal of getting the government out of public education and turning public dollars over to private control with minimal regulation and minimal oversight.”

Pleas for charter school oversight

…The president of one influential charter group told the House Education and Labor Committee that the federal government had spent $2 billion since the mid-1990s to finance new charter schools but less than $2 million, about one-tenth of 1 percent, to ensure that they were held to high standards.

“It’s as if the federal government had spent billions for new highway construction, but nothing to put up guardrails along the sides of those highways,” said Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers…

A leading school-choice supporter says the sweeping changes proposed by House Republicans would weaken oversight of charter schools severely and threaten to turn Ohio into a "laughingstock of the nation's charter-school programs.

"It's hard for me to say that," said Terry Ryan, vice president of Ohio programs and policy for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which sponsors seven charter schools in the state, including two in Columbus...

"The idea of regulating charter schools makes no sense because deregulation is the justification for the policy." -- Jim M., retired teacher

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Perhaps it's finally dawning on some charter school supporters that the whole business is a huge can of worms.

Debt, misuse of funds, embezzlement & closure

Charters schools that are closed for fiscal problems and debt rarely repay their districts, also leaving vendors and staff members unpaid. Charter school funds that are misused or stolen are rarely recovered.*

And in New Jersey...

"New Jersey’s charter school law is alone in allowing the State’s Department of Education to authorize an unlimited number of new charter schools, regardless of the wishes of the host communities, while expecting those communities to pay for the operations of the charter schools out of their existing public school budgets." --- Julia Sass Rubin

Message to readers

With the systematic privatization of public education being conducted via the rapid expansion of charter schools, I regularly receive messages from teachers and parents who have charter school horror stories they want to share, and/or are in need of advice about a charter school situation in their community (e.g., "The charter school I attended has been closed. Do you know how I can get a copy of my transcript?). I also hear from journalists who are seeking information.

Just so you know, this site is a one-woman volunteer operation. Sorry folks, I'm DEFINITELY NOT union-sponsored.

Welcome

Charter School Scandals (CSS) was launched on May 14, 2010 to provide the public with a source of independently collected information about U.S. charter schools.

For instance, compare what you learn from my entry for the 3,500 student CATO School of Reason to the information provided by the pro-charter Center for Education Reform in their compilation: "Closed Charter Schools by State: National Data 2009" (63 page pdf). In the CER's document, the closure reason is "Management" explained as "Inadequate record keeping, suspect relations with private and sectarian schools," but the true story is much bigger and dirtier than that.

CSS is a non-billionaire funded (and un-bought off!), non-union affiliated (!), one-person operation in the name of transparency and public service to our democracy. I post the information as quickly as I can, but have a massive backlog due to the sheer number of stories. Please check back periodically for new additions.

And as you scroll through these stories, be sure to keep a running tally of the estimated legal costs.

Gulen Movement MUST READS!

Under the radar of the American public, the Gulen movement has been quietly advancing its presence in the U.S. via the establishment of charter schools, "cultural centers", and "interfaith dialogue" centers. Politicians, reporters, academics, community leaders, and charter school families have been strategically targeted, influenced, and given gifts, as the Gulenists have steadily built up their political cover. But how many of these Americans have an understanding of the controversies which surround this secretive movement and its worldwide political ambitions? And how would the public respond to finding out that such a movement is opening more and more charter schools, supported by their tax dollars as part of the GM's primary global project, without being willing to admit the connection?

World's top public intellectual? Not.

Examine the nature of their U.S. activities, and you will see that the Gulen movement is addicted to propaganda. As an example of their tactics, read how Gulen's followers propelled him to the top of a poll in "How Gulen triumphed."Prospect, 7/26/2008.

“Gülen’s crushing win tells us little about what the world thinks about its intellectuals; it merely exhibits the organisational ability of one movement’s followers.”

On faux ‘privatization’

"Private actors who simply take state services over by profiting off of taxpayer money are no different than the government, after all, they’re just for-profit government." -- E.D. Kain

Calling all whistleblowers!

If you are a concerned citizen with information about a yet-to-be-revealed charter school scandal, please consider writing to me at perimeterprimate@yahoo.com. Your name will be kept confidential.

USEFUL SEARCH TIPS

• For Google - Enclose your search item in quotations, such as "John Doe." If searching for two connected items, use a + sign between them.• With Web pages or documents - Simultaneously press ctrl + f and an interactive search box will appear.

Bad apples, tips of icebergs, and cans of worms

In 2000, the Center for Education Reform wrote: "A few bad apples shouldn't sour the public on the promising charter school movement, but when a bad apple does turn up, critics of charter schools pounce on it. Charter opponents are quick to claim that "more than a few" schools have closed and even quicker to characterize the movement as one that invites unscrupulous, fly-by-night operators to set up shop.Those mean ol' charter opponents. Isn't it curious how the reformers don't have any problem at all with building up a few negative public school stories into an anti-public teacher-bashing movement of national proportions in order to destroy teacher unions and public schools as a whole?"

- Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz (April 2010): "The fact that there were significant issues at 13 out of 13 [schools] raises the likelihood you would see many of these same issues found in a much larger sampling of the schools.By May 2010, his probe had widened to 18 charter schools."

Relationships terminated

Charter school promoters live in an abstract world where it's perfectly fine to shutter a school when the "need" arises. This reveals a profound detachment and utter disregard for the emotional lives of the children and families who, as a result, end up being subjected to tremendous disruption, stress, termination of meaningful relationships, loss and grief. Kids need security and dependability.

A school going "out of business" takes a very different emotional toll on families and children than when their local gas station or Denny's restaurant does.

-----"It comes down to what ultimately is in the best public interest here -- supporting the growth of charters or not. Does that support ultimately weaken the rest of the school district? You bet it does." (Fred LeBrun, Albany, NY)

Observations

There is no doubt but that an increasing number of inspectors, auditors, investigators, prosecutors and court rooms (and a lot of time and money) will be needed as more state charter caps are lifted.

Part of the problem is that too many people running charter schools see them as their own little fiefdoms. After all the effort and money put into setting up their schools -- and with political leaders and the mainstream media shining their bright spotlights on charter schools -- the stakes are inordinately high for them to be able to show "success."

Another problem I've discovered by doing this research is that the unmonitored access to millions of public education dollars is drawing unscrupulous people into the "business." At other times, new-found access to funds is proving to be too tempting for some people who were perhaps less criminally-minded.

Additionally, I've now discovered that, in this era of high-stakes testing, the education security business is booming. As one company put it, "Cheating on tests isn't the exception anymore; it has almost become the rule."

On competition

Two main ideas inform the charter school movement. The first is that competition is an essential ingredient in school improvement. Charters are said to provide that.

The trouble with this argument is that competition doesn't select the best, only the most popular. McDonald's doesn't produce the best-tasting or most-nutritious food, for instance, but its heart attack specials certainly are popular. A second-rate school might prove similarly competitive if it provides a tawdry but reassuring education to the children of the low-information crowd. Fearful your kids will discover you are an ignoramus? Send them to Alpha Charter where they will never learn to doubt.

What is a "scandal"?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as the following:

1. A publicized incident that brings about disgrace or offends the moral sensibilities of society.2. A person, thing, or circumstance that causes or ought to cause disgrace or outrage.3. Damage to reputation or character caused by public disclosure of immoral or grossly improper behavior; disgrace.

Dedication

This Web site is dedicated to Eli Broad, Bill Gates, the Walton family, Arne Duncan, Whitney Tilson, Joe Williams, Reed Hastings, Ted Mitchell, Jack O'Connell, Tom Vander Ark, George Miller, Joanne Weiss, Randy Ward, Arnold Swarzenegger, all Milton Friedman-lovers, and any other free-market, pro-school choice, minimally-regulate-what-goes-on-in-charter school supporters who are also proud self-stated "DISRUPTORS" of public school communities, who have almost never, EVER been part of a public school community or local neighborhood, or who rejected being part of any public school community or local neighborhood long, long ago -- but have ended up deciding to help tear apart the tapestry of basic local human connections anyway.

Visitors

A variety of people have been looking at my blog, probably because of the great Gulen charter school information I've posted. This site is regularly visited by readers from Turkey. I get periodic visits from dhs.gov, doj.gov and ed.gov. I've had visits from house.gov and ed.gov, and at least one visit from someone at eop.gov (? Executive Office of the President). I've had a few visits from a couple of mystery IPs that are supposedly associated with the State Department, specifically the CIA. Hmmmmm...